The invention concerns an apparatus for the winding of container jackets wherein a flat blank of cardboard or plastic is bent around a winding core by means of a folding mechanism.
A conventional folding mechanism includes a pair of folding fingers each having first and second arm portions joined at a location where the respective fingers are pivotably mounted to a movable carrier. One of the arm portions carries a guidable member, and the other arm portion is engageable with the blank. A pair of slide guides are provided with curved (nonlinear) guide passages in which the guidable members are movably disposed. When the carrier is raised toward the core, the guidable members travel along the guide passages, causing the fingers to pivot such that their blank-engaging ends converge to fold the blank around the core.
In an apparatus of this type, such as shown in International Application WO 85/01692, the slide guides are stationary. Consequently, the slide guides and folding fingers controlled by the slide guides are adapted for use with only one size of winding core. Therefore, if a winding core is replaced by a core with a different diameter, at least the slide guides must also be replaced by guides of different configuration, because the folding fingers will have to be displaced to a different geometric position in order to fold the blank.